My Scumbag System Chapter 476: Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice (Unless You’re Me)

The electric shock from Reyna’s marionettes had a taste reminiscent of pennies mixed with pure rage.

I remained motionless, absorbing her initial onslaught as the surrounding crowd erupted into a frenzy. Thousands of students, instructors, and scouts unleashed a deafening roar that crashed over the arena like a tangible wave.

Reyna’s flawless combat stance wavered for a fraction of a second. Yet, I noticed it.

Confusion.

Displeasure.

Calculation.

Her emerald eyes narrowed, dissecting the unexpected turn of events, her mind swiftly analyzing the implications. A sharp intellect, she recognized instantly that I had neutralized her primary offensive strategy with a method absent from the briefing materials.

"A cute trick, Stray Dog," she declared, her voice carrying across the arena. It was laden with contempt, yet couldn't entirely conceal a nascent wariness. "Let's see if you possess any other surprises."

With a sharp snap of her fingers, four more marionettes materialized from thin air. They flickered into existence, arcs of crackling blue-white electricity connecting their limbs, bringing the total to six. All of them fixed their vacant, glowing gazes upon me.

Then, she moved. Not just commanding her puppets, but engaging directly. Reyna became a blur, streaking across the sandy floor to close the distance between us while her marionettes launched attacks from multiple vectors. She was probing my defenses, observing my reaction to a coordinated assault.

My Protection from Arrows skill emitted a spectral warning a mere half-second before impact.

I instinctively rolled, feeling the rush of displaced air from three simultaneous strikes whizzing over my head. Scrambling to my feet, my bat swung in a powerful arc, connecting with the nearest marionette's core. Spatial Cleave activated on contact.

The invisible blade carved through the electrical construct as if reality itself yielded to my passage. The marionette disintegrated, exploding into a shower of sparks that rained down upon the volcanic sand.

Reyna’s eyes widened in surprise.

"Interesting."

She instantly conjured another marionette, replacing the one I had destroyed. Swiftly followed by two more, restoring her count to six. They moved in concert with her, forming a living, crackling barrier of impending doom between us.

Reaching her directly was impossible without overcoming her puppets first.

And she knew it.

"Is that your strategy? Hiding behind your little dolls?"

"Strategy is for those lacking overwhelming force," she replied with a smile devoid of warmth. It was cold, beautiful, and terrifying. "But I don't need to overwhelm you. I merely need to exhaust you."

The marionettes attacked as a unified force.

Coordinated.

Ruthless.

Six distinct angles converged on my position simultaneously, while Reyna maintained her distance, orchestrating their movements with casual flicks of her wrist, much like a conductor leading an orchestra.

I activated Steel Body.

The world seemed to shift. My skin hardened, my muscles locked rigidly in place, rendering every fiber of my being impervious to harm for precisely ten seconds. The first marionette’s haymaker, aimed at my chest, carried enough force to have caved in my sternum under normal circumstances.

But there was nothing. No pain, no sensation of impact, only the feeling of sheer force meeting an immovable object.

I seized its wrist mid-swing, yanking hard and utilizing its own momentum to hurl the construct into two of its companions. They collided in a burst of sparks, their forms collapsing.

Three down. Seven seconds of invulnerability remained.

A flicker of agitation crossed Reyna’s composed features. "How—"

I sprinted directly towards her, eschewing complex footwork for raw speed, propelled by my 7,750 Agility and the absolute certainty that she couldn’t harm me for the next five seconds.

Her remaining marionettes moved to intercept, but they were too slow. I was already past them, Steel Body still active, my boots scattering volcanic sand as I closed the final gap.

Four seconds left.

Reyna retreated, her hands moving to summon more puppets. She managed to manifest one before I reached her, but it was a hasty, flawed creation, its left arm entirely missing.

Two seconds remaining.

I swung my bat towards her head.

Reyna ducked, executing a perfect combat roll that would have earned Braxton's approval. She emerged five meters away, breathing heavily, her crimson hair swirling around her face.

"You're faster than you appear."

"You're slower than I anticipated."

This wasn't entirely true; her speed matched the briefings precisely. However, deception is a potent weapon, and witnessing the tightening of her jaw was a worthy reward.

Steel Body expired.

Vulnerability flooded back into my body like an icy deluge. My ribs ached from Raphael's earlier blow, my shoulder throbbed from the Hydra encounter, and the skin on my arms still bore the tight, angry marks from the Arborist’s fiery assault.

Reyna noticed. She observed the subtle shift in my breathing, the minute falter in my stance.

"There it is," she stated with a smile. "You're injured. And whatever that invincibility was, it has now vanished."

She was correct.

And she knew it.

Her marionettes reformed around her, now numbering seven, their bodies pulsing with intensified energy. The constructs moved with unsettling synchronicity, encircling me in a loose formation.

"One last chance to surrender, Nakano. Spare yourself further humiliation."

"I'll pass."

"As you wish. Your funeral."

The marionettes attacked.

All seven.

Simultaneously.

I activated Kinetic Absorption and braced myself before the first strike landed. A marionette’s fist collided with my shoulder, and the impact’s force was instantly converted into raw power, causing my Strength stat to jump by five percent. My Agility followed suit.

The second blow connected with my ribs. Another conversion. Another surge of power.

The third caught me squarely on the jaw, whipping my head to the side and flooding my mouth with the metallic taste of blood.

Yet, with each hit absorbed, I grew stronger.

Faster.

Better.

The Rockstar Made skill kicked in as well, layering its own distinct bonuses atop everything else. A five percent boost across all attributes was granted simply for enduring life-threatening damage, a category this event certainly qualified for, considering Reyna’s constructs struck with the force of freight trains imbued with furious electricity.

I ceased my attempts to evade.

Instead, I began advancing, intentionally taking the hits. My abilities stacked their buffs, while the onlookers completely lost their composure at the sight of me marching through a barrage that should have easily put me down.

Reyna’s confident smile began to waver.

"Stop walking."

I paid her no mind.

Another impact. My chest. Kinetic Absorption hummed its quiet tune.

Another. My stomach. My Endurance stat steadily climbed.

Another. My thigh. My entire being thrummed with potent, accumulated power.

"I said STOP!" Lightning erupted from Reyna’s hands, not in the form of constructs this time, but as raw electrical discharge aimed directly at my face.

Lightning Rod activated on its own accord.

The bolt’s trajectory shifted mid-flight, drawn irresistibly toward me as if by a powerful magnet. It struck my chest and dissipated harmlessly into my mana pool, augmenting the reservoir I had been diligently cultivating. The entire crowd fell into an absolute, stunned silence.

No one present could possibly comprehend what they had just witnessed.

"You can’t harm me with lightning," I declared, my voice resonating clearly across the vast arena. "Do you have anything else?"